Trouble tolerating higher dose?

[hopefulRAsufferer]

I’ve been on 50mg Minocycline M,W,F for about 3 years. Recently went to see a great AP doctor in California. He bumped up my dose to 100mg M,W,F starting in December with good results. (Although my blood work was showing slight elevation for my liver…I felt fine.)

At the beginning of March he increased my dose again to 100mg in the AM and 100mg in the PM and I’ve been struggling ever since. At first I had some slight dizzyness, stomach aches, nausea (I even had fever and thought it was the flu…it almost went away over the weekend) and now (after last night’s dose) I have severe dizzyness.

Does this mean my liver can’t take this jump? Should I go back to 100 or even 50? Will this just be temporary as I get used to the new dose? I’ve got a call into the doctor but can’t go see him as I’m in Canada. If anyone has any useful advice I would appreciate it. I’m currently doing IV vit C every week (25g) to try to help.

[Maz]

@hopefulRAsufferer wrote:

Does this mean my liver can’t take this jump? Should I go back to 100 or even 50? Will this just be temporary as I get used to the new dose? I’ve got a call into the doctor but can’t go see him as I’m in Canada. If anyone has any useful advice I would appreciate it. I’m currently doing IV vit C every week (25g) to try to help.

Hi HopefulRASufferer,

The dizziness (and nausea) is a very common early vestibular side-effect…vesibular symptoms are a bit like car sickness. These should pass as the body adjusts. The way some docs get around this is to increase the dose more slowly rather than in quick jumps. If people take just one dose a day, too, they can take it in the evening (rather than morning) so that they can sleep through it….twice a day dosing is more of a challenge, but this should pass and nausea can be helped by eating a light snack (no minerals) with the dose.

Elevated liver enzymes need to be monitored regularly and the dizziness is likely not related, as it’s a common early side-effect of mino that should pass (mino has superior tissue penetration to the other tetras and crosses the blood/brain barrier). If you’re worried, just ask the doc to order labs at regular intervals so these can be watched. You might also like to research a supplement called, “milk thistle,” which is wonderful for decreasing liver enzymes, as well as a few other nice advantages. It’s always wise to check with one’s doc, though, before adding a new supp to ensure there are no contraindications with other meds or medical conditions. The following site is actually selling products, but the info they share on milk thistle is lay-friendly and pretty widely-accepted:

http://www.skyeherbals.com/materia_medica/milk_thistle.php

There is a bit more info on a study, benefits and contraindications in this article:

http://www.livestrong.com/article/181692-milk-thistle-and-liver-enzymes/

Hope you feel better soon! If the side-effects feel too much, then just ask doc if you can increase more slowly in smaller increments to get to the dose he wants you on.

[hopefulRAsufferer]

Thanks so much, you are always so helpful!

[mkay]

You might also like to research a supplement called, “milk thistle,” which is wonderful for decreasing liver enzymes, as well as a few other nice advantages.

Maz-

What else does milk thistle help with? Maybe I need to add this 🙂

[Maz]

@mkay wrote:

What else does milk thistle help with? Maybe I need to add this 🙂

Hi Mkay,

I first came upon the use of milk thistle when I was researching supps to help with gall bladder disease. The following Wiki link has some info on benefits/studies to read, but you’ll find a ton of material on milk thistle just by googling “the benefits of milk thistle”:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milk_thistle

[Author]

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